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Publisher Defends Army of Two's Content Lock

Last week we reported on Army of Two: The 40th Day's "pre-order bonus" deal wherein the multiplayer Extraction mode will be unlocked for only those who dropped $5 on the game early. Everyone else who buys the game on day one will have to wait a month before the mode is made available to them. Today Patrick Klepek at G4 managed to get a response from the game's publisher, EA, which defended the decision based on the team's need to come up with a pre-order bonus:

We are not locking Extraction – we are offering extra content which was originally not part of the game as a bonus to our dedicated community after launch. We decided to make it available earlier, at launch, for those who pre-ordered the game. This game mode was actually developed as an extra, bonus game mode and so there is nothing we are taking away from players. And it will be available for free to everyone 30 days after launch (Feb 12).

Tyler says: According to G4, retailers will provide those who pre-order The 40th Day with a code to unlock Extraction. It seems EA is contradicting itself here. Does "unlock" mean download? Or does it mean that Extraction is on the disc but you can't have it?

If the latter is true, don't be fooled by EA's euphemistic term "pre-order bonus." If it's on the disc, and I can't access it, then by definition you're locking content. Times like these I wonder if these people are even in the same industry. More specifically, does EA realize it's making a videogame for gamers? Does it understand we're an informed public who typically flips out over stuff like this? Am I the only person whose blood boils over this move? Tell me I'm not alone.